‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’ Major Character Death Reportedly Revealed

The next X-Men movie, Dark Phoenix, teased some pretty dark portents for the franchise with its first trailer, but none was darker, or more ominous than a funeral scene that seems to indicate the death of a major X-Men character. Ever since that trailer’s release, there’s been all kinds of speculation about who will end up in that grave being mourned by Charles Xavier and the X-Men during the course of Dark Phoenix. Now, one outlet is claiming that they have the answer!

WARNING: Major potential spoilers for Dark Phoenix follow! Read only if you want to know!

According to We Got This Covered, Jennifer Lawrence‘s Mystique is the X-Men character that will die during Dark Phoenix. This pretty much lines up with the most prevalent fan theories about the mystery death, and (still taking this with the obligatory grain of salt) it shouldn’t be all that surprising.

In truth, Jennifer Lawrence has been not-so-subtly hinting that she’s been ready to leave X-Men behind ever since the 2014 release of X-Men: Days of Future Past. It’s been more of a miracle (of binding contractual rigidity) that the Oscar-winner has hung in with the franchise through both X-Men: Apocalypse and the two-part production and recut of Dark Phoenix.

Reportedly, the decisive moment comes in the film after Jean Grey begins to manifest her Phoenix powers. Jean is trying to find her own path, but, Charles and the X-Men being who they are, there’s an attempt to bring Jean back into the fold, where she can be helped (presumably by Charles), but things of course go sideways. In the ensuing chaos, Mystique is apparently killed, as Jean can’t control her power and unleashes it against her friends.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because it pretty much syncs up to how most stories of the Dark Phoenix play out — including the previous movie adaptation of the story in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand. That film infamously made the decision to have Jean kill off both her love, Cyclops, and mentor, Charles Xavier, when her massive psychic abilities manifested in the form of a malevolent new persona.

As for this Dark Phoenix version: you can pretty much tell that Mystique is the likely one to die. There’s a big foreshadowing shot of Mystique leading the X-Men mission in space where the Phoenix flame is reflected over Mystique’s face in the ship cockpit, essentially “consuming her.” Other shots of the X-Men facing Jean Grey (presumably at her childhood home) show Mystique running in front of what could be the fatal blow as well as Hank McCoy/Beast cradling her in his harms, presumably after the battle is over.

In short: unless director Simon Kinberg pulls a major fakeout, this has been one of the more obvious twists in a comic book movie that we’ve seen in awhile.

Dark Phoenix hits theaters on June 7th. It will be followed by New Mutants on August 2nd.